I really like the idea of them revisiting familiar places and finding deeper mysteries to them. It reminds me of those video games where you can look at the paths to different places, but you can’t access them until you’ve leveled up or found the right weapons.

I love the concept. As well as all the Arthurian legend that’s interwoven in here. I’ve been reading for a couple years now and I’ve always been impressed with the renderings and details of places.
If I may make a suggestion about this new place: the sudden and abrupt absence of coral in the Wild Expanse doesn’t fit for me. It makes coral seem . . . domesticated, like a flower. Coral is anything but. I understand that there is a reason to try and visually separate the two places. I see that the Wild Expanse (anyone else feel like it’s proper noun worthy?) seems to be at a greater depth so my suggestion is different, less colorful (non-sun dependent) varieties of coral be added. I, for one, think that would make it look a lot creepier. Spiney, colorless coral reaching out to grab you? Better than an evil forest in a Disney cartoon!
But, that’s just a suggestion. Like I said, I enjoy details and I know–from reading your comic–you do, too. The absence of coral just threw me off and I thought you might like the feedback. I cannot wait to see where they go, coral or no. Viviene, Nimue, Nivene, Elain, Nineve, Evianne or whatever she wants to be called has so much legend shrouding here, I ADORE seeing new takes on her! 😀

Perhaps I’m misjudging just how deep the Wild Expanse is. It doesn’t look quite so deep to me as to be devoid of coral. Especially since Naroobi seems to still have plenty of the shallower water corals.

So that’s why I mentioned it! As for deep sea corals: there are more than a few species of coral that evolved to survive in the lightless environment. There’s even some that can survive at a depth of 3,000 m. These tend to be colorless or in the longer color wavelengths (especially reds). Lots of them are tree shaped, hence my suggestion. I’m truly just trying to suggest, not say you haven’t done your research.
Wikipedia has a decent article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_water_coral

i think it’s a little confusing, scott. in your first panel, you’ve got a lot of sunlight streaming through the water, illuminating them from the back, but in the third, it’s pitch-black. it’s hard to judge where we are.

Hello, I thought I would share some of my knowledge on the subject from a class I am currently taking.
While corals do tend to stop when the light disappears, other invertebrates, like sponges, do not. Some sponges can be as colorful as corals, but are filter feeders, so they do not need the sunlight. Some (like Rhabdocalyptus dawsonii) also tend to like cliff faces as the currents from the depths give them lots of nutrients. These invertebrates mix in with the corals at the lower levels of the corals. There are actually sponge reefs in the depths, they just aren’t heard very much about and are quite endangered due to destruction. There are several reefs in the Hecate strait off the coast of Vancouver, BC in Canada. I hope that this helps.

Keep in mind that it’s quite possible that the people of Naroobi HAVE domesticated coral. It’s not like you can plant flowers and trees all over the place to beautify your city if you live underwater, but coral is a readily available and native species. And Naroobi has been around for a long time, so you’d expect there to be a lot of domesticated species of underwater flora and fauna. I, for one, am surprised we haven’t run into someone’s pet manatee or something.

The lack of coral is a good observation, and like another reply said, coral needs light. If you were ever to go diving and you come to a ridge like they are talking on you will notice that the coral does just kinda stop at the edge, add that into the water getting darker and not being able to see the ocean floor cause it gets too dark and frankly (when your already 100 feet under water) it gets a little freaky….

Speaking as a marine biologist, there are several factors that could be at play here:
1) Yeah, it’s darker there.
2) We don’t know if that’s the kind of hard surface most corals prefer to grow upon, or silt.
3) There may be a thermocline here.

Any one of those could result in what we scientists refer to as a condition of “coral no likey”.

And speaking as a fan of the comic, there’s actually just as much coral at the crest here as on previous pages. There is, however, less kelp (and kelp would be affected by the same factors as above.)

I just want to say, on my own, that reading the comments above has been very enlightening about deep-sea life. But…I do have to say this: it’s okay for them to fly and grow mermaid/merman tails, but not for coral to be out of place? Hee hee hee.

It is nice to see there are still dark and scary places in Dreamland. I get the impression that the Wild Expanse is the no man land between Dreamland and the Nightmare Realm. Should be a wild an wolly ride the gang. Even ‘tasha is going to be out of her depth.

I have to mention that the Hydra was not sea dwelling creature in greek mythology but a serpent-like water-dweller beast that lived near a lake, or a swamp, or a deep cave.
It is interesting that beneath the waters of that cave was the entrance to the Underworld.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernaean_Hydra)
Is that means that we heve to prepare ourselves to watch an epic journey to the unknown parts of Dreamland?